A project description of a maximum of 250 words explaining in more detail the ambition for the project, how this was achieved, and the impact the project has had post-completion. In your description please demonstrate how the project delivers innovation and creativity in the creation of new space; high quality design that adds to London’s rich mix of architectural styles; and sustainable and cost-effective approaches to the project delivery.

This is a quirky Edwardian house, sliced off at an angle by the adjoining road, resulting in an unusual layout and small kitchen. In consultation with the client we proposed a compact volume that gave additional space whilst not destroying the character of the original house.

A brick addition was chosen as the most sensitive material for the original building, complimenting the existing red bricks within the elevation. We defined the height of the extension by lining up the parapet with the top of the red brick header, to help tie the new and the old together.

The client, Lisa is a textiles designer and has a love of texture, colour and fun which we wanted to convey within the project whilst being very careful with the budget which was tight. In conjunction with Lisa we decided upon laying the bricks in a flemish bond with protruding headers creating what we referred to together as a ‘Lacy Brick’ pattern. For the specific brick itself we settled upon ‘Hectic Red’ bricks by Weinerberger for their crumbly texture and extravert splotches of colour.

The main structure of the extension is timber frame, chosen as a cost effective and sustainable option whilst the bricks provide a durable and visually sensitive external skin.

Lisa says: “It’s the first time in my life that I have the perfect kitchen. It’s comfortable, practical, warm, cosy and spacious. It’s actually a very sociable part of the house…something I hadn’t anticipated…..”

With the increase of natural and man-made disasters around the globe, it becomes increasingly important to understand how architects, and architecture, can contribute to post-disaster reconstruction efforts. While there is an argument that architects are the least people needed in this scenario, a collaborative process of planning, designing and building can enable those affected by the disaster to have a say in the processes that eventually affect them. Streetlight Tagpuro is a collaborative design and build process that began 3 years before the strongest typhoon to ever hit land devastated Tacloban city in the Philippines, and the 3 years of reconstruction that followed.

In November 2013, super-typhoon Haiyan devastated the city of Tacloban, Leyte in the southern region of the Philippines. It was one of the strongest typhoons ever recorded. A locally based NGO called Streetlight, which supports street children and neighbouring communities by providing social services, had their orphanage and rehabilitation center at the seafront destroyed by the typhoon. In the aftermath of Haiyan, Streetlight decided to rebuild their facilities inland, 16 km north of their previous site to provide much needed safety for the children and the community.

The architects, together with the community developed the design through a series of participatory workshops that used drawing, poetry, model making, mapping, and physical prototyping. This method was critical in forming a strong sense of ownership of the project and empowering the community to find their own voice.

Through the design process, the spatial concepts of “open and light” and “closed and safe” found resonance with the community. These concepts helped them articulate a desire for openness and connection to nature while providing safety and security during a typhoon. In some way, the design process helped them deal with and respond to the psychological trauma of Haiyan.

The translation of the dual concepts of “open vs. closed” and “light vs. heavy” relates to the use of ventilated light timber frames set against heavy reinforced concrete volumes. The timber frames allow air to flow through the spaces while the concrete volumes provide refuge during typhoons. Timber slatted doors and windows were designed and built by the fathers of the children in the program. By helping them design their space, the project becomes a contextual expression of a local identity that the community can find their own meaning in.

The architecture explores the values of honest materiality, craftsmanship, expressive tectonics, and vernacular sensitivity. Through the deliberate selection of materials and construction methods based on their potential for adaptation by local workers, the construction process serves as a mode of capacity building and livelihood training. Finally, through a participatory and community-based design process that affords a framework for local expression, the project becomes opportunity not only to build architecture, but also to build a representation of shared values and shared meanings.

“Streetlight Tagpuro” won the Civic and Community Category and the Small Project of The Year Award at the World Architecture Festival 2017.

Alexander Eriksson Furunes studied at the AA School of Architecture, UK, before receiving his masters in architecture at NTNU, Norway. With his studio, Eriksson Furunes architecture, he has initiated and completed a series of collaborative projects with communities in UK, India, Philippines, Brazil, Vietnam and China. He is currently doing an Artistic PhD on participative planning, design and build processes at the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme (NTNU, 2016-19).

Sudarshan V. Khadka Jr. is the principal of i.incite, architects. Formerly, he was an associate at Leandro V. Locsin Partners (LVLP) where he was in-charge-of multiple projects. He is a member of the curatorial team of the Philippine Pavilion, “Muhon: Traces of an Adolescent City” at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale. He is driven by the critical search for a modern vernacular and the exploration of the tectonic potential of construction.

Silhouette is a 52,000m2 complex that will consist of luxury apartments, a sports centre, flexible workspaces, an event space and a sky deck. The top floors accommodate apartments in a variety of configurations and sizes with the largest located on the corners providing panoramic views in every direction. Underground programs include a supermarket and both commercial and residential parking. A modular system allows for diversifying the building’s shape and interior typologies whilst at the same time, this provides both compact and spacious apartments. The volume of the building is sculpted and diversified to create distinctive entrances and a sloping roofscape that strengthens the views of the city. Sculptural cuts on the top and bottom of the facade are carved out according to the function that needs to take place, or certain quality that needs to be provided within the space inside.

The elevation pattern is manipulated by various window sizes that respond to their position within the façade. The red ceramic façade features a subtle gradient of window sizes in dialogue to the buildings overall massing. The distinct red-colour of the façade not only refers to the neighbouring constructivist building but also affirms its character as a warm and welcoming place to live.

The architectural concept was chosen as the best proposal and won the closed competition, held by GK Osnova.

The 25hours Hotel has found its new home in Munich, in the magnificent building at Bahnhofplatz 1. The listed structure was built in 1871 in the Renaissance Revival style. In the last century, it served as a building for the postal service and was the home of the royal telegraph station. During the war, the building was almost completely destroyed; however, it was rebuilt according to its original appearance.

We were entrusted with the honourable task to breathe fresh life into this historical location and were allowed to design a hotel that surprises guests and takes them on a journey; a journey back into the royal past of Bavaria: The Royal Bavarian.

The 25hours Hotel Group has developed hotels whose designs alone are reason enough to travel. Guests with cosmopolitan and urban flair appreciate/value the eleven hotels that make it their mission to embody and reflect the essence of a city through creative design. The 25hours Hotels spark the imagination during an overnight stay, with highly individual, functional, beautiful and unique designs. These are always different but consistently great creations for both the guests and the location. As a result, since 2003 the four partners of 25hours have had great success and a strong influence on the development of the hotel branch as a whole.

The Task: a Design Concept for a Hotel Business in a Historic Location In addition to the ordinary pitfalls one faces when renovating historic buildings, the main challenge was to bring the numerous ceiling structures – which were reinforced at varying times during and after the original reconstruction – in line with the load-bearing requirements of the new designated use as a Hotel. As such, the ceiling openings needed for distribution lines and building technology in general were challenging to integrate. Nonetheless, the premises – with heights up to 3,40 m – held enormous potential.

In addition to the 165 rooms, the space planning includes a gym and a wellness area. Due to the fact that other tenants occupy parts of the ground floor, the reception is situated on the first floor, while the space on the ground floor is reserved for the gastronomy areas of the hotel. The restaurant, deli and a small burger joint are located on the street level, while the reception, the bar and a meeting/event space are accommodated on the first floor.

On top of redesigning the space to meet functional requirements for the operation of the hotel, it was important for the design team to incorporate the history of the building and the spirit of the “royal telegraph station.” Of course, the design is also true to the guiding principle of the 25hours Hotels – “you’ve seen one, you’ve seen none.”

The Idea: A mixture of a Grand Hotel and the royal Bavarian past The starting point for our design was an inspiring journey through Bavaria. We investigated elegant castles, stately residences and grottoes and as a result, in many spots throughout the Hotel, we tell of the tales that we encountered on our mysterious travels…

The Implementation: colourful, sumptuous, royally-Bajuwarian Guests reside in servants quarters, grand chambers or noble apartments and slumber on stacked mattresses alluding to royal beds of past times. And for those who really want to dive into the royal splendour, there are the Peacock and the Swan Suites to hold court. Bavarian craftsmanship was implemented into the signage concept: carefully crafted embroidery frames lead through the house and messages in Bavarian dialect, such as “Hoaß” and “Koid” (hot and cold) on vintage style nostalgic fittings, hopefully help set the right temperature while taking a shower…

In the NENI Restaurant guests dine while seated on lush velvet padded seats while in the Orangery, housing the NENI Deli, one can browse through newspapers and enjoy coffee, all while breathing in the vibrant, opulent, royal and tongue-in-cheek atmosphere!

From the gastronomic establishments on the ground floor, a prestigious and elegant show stairway leads guests upstairs to the reception and the Boilerman Bar. Past the bridge leading to the Muschelkammer (shell hall), a traditional Bavarian “living room” awaits guests and is available for meetings and events. Opposite the reception desk, a regal sleigh marks the royal work lab. Guests can write letters on vintage typewriters and enjoy old records in the bar library on an authentic gramophone.

Although success is no stranger to the 25hours Group, the Royal Bavarian Hotel was a major coup: extremely well booked from the beginning, a remarkably high and positive media response and happy guests prove the claim of the Munich branch: Bavarians do it better.

The recovery of the house located at Rua Dr. José Falcão, aimed to introduce a series of capital gains that would enable its full utilization, in a completely current and according to the specific pretensions of a household that recently acquired the property.

Thus, after finding that the existing constructions, far from forming a fully coherent set, showed some indications of different treatment and states of conservation quite different from each other, it was easily concluded what to save and what to destroy, even though it is perceived that , the intervention should guarantee its own logic, a result that shows coherence and at the same time the naturalness that characterizes it – a splited intervention was not advocated here, which, even if it guaranteed an image or a set of easily readable images, did not introduce a degree of depth and density as it should characterize the architecture.

The house is located in a structural artery of the city of Ovar and the implantation, bordering the access road, leaning against the adjacent buildings, allows the repetition of an urban model of frequent use, that allows a peripheral occupation of the blocks and liberates its interior, for use mainly destined to the individual ends, as it happens here. In this scenario, both the secondary construction and the main house itself, present a logic of implementation supported by two main elevations, the street and the inside façade, which establish relations of a different form, more representative/formal in the elevation facing the street and more uncommitted in the inner, private elevation.

In addition, the buildings clearly accentuate their function, allowing a hierarchical reading, maintaining a more trivial relationship in the way the secondary building is constructed and presenting a constructively richer architecture for the dwelling, namely the noble spaces of more permanent use.

Not only the materials, the richness of the construction and the scale of the spaces themselves distinguish each other, ensuring greater spatiality for the nobler spaces and relegating to the spaces of the secondary building the more contained scales.

In this sense, the intervention proposes a revaluation of these principles of action, introducing a logic of continuity, not of rupture.
Regarding the areas of occupation, it is proposed to maintain the existing areas of implantation, with only a regularization of the existing outbuilding that maintains the same area of ​​implantation but is rebuilt, taking into account its advanced state of degradation.

Thus the spaces of social use and of greater permanence are destined to the main volume allowing to take advantage of the areas of the compartments and try to adapt them to the functions more propitious for the same ones. Complementarily, in the secondary volume, it is proposed the location of the garage space facing the street and the area of ​​private use of the house, facing the interior of the street.

Finally, in the outbuilding redesigned in the meantime, it is proposed the location of support spaces, essentially the laundry and a small storage.
As for the attic floor of the main volume of the dwelling, the proposal foresees the maintenance of this space as a multipurpose space of support and generic use, despite introducing a new vertical access, a toilet and natural lighting through 3 mansard.

The proposal accuses the weight of the existing patrimonial wealth, and consciously tries to incorporate it as valid in the current solution, avoiding the musealization but also denying a more radical posture to erase all traces of a past, despite everything relatively present and valid for the use of the house, in current form.

Materially, the purpose was to keep as much as possible the constructive logic of existing building, ensuring that the new elements introduced did not cause significant disturbances in the spaces.

With regard to the treatment of outdoor spaces, the objective was to introduce a more unified reading into space, ensuring a more complex plant treatment perimeter by introducing a hedge and allowing a less crowded core, more available for less regulated use/committed and more versatile.

Finally, in terms of substantially visible alterations in the elevations of the buildings, on the ground floor, at the level of the secondary construction, it was foreseen the introduction of an almost total opening to the street, allowing the use of the respective interior space as a garage and, on the contrary, a more controlled opening of the two bedrooms to the plot – the elevations are therefore practically redone, having as principle the introduction of spans that maintain the scale of the construction, provided to the new program and its uses, but modern reinterpreting the more decorative sense of the tiles, reintroduced of apparent form in the stamping of the existent standard.

The fortress Franzensfeste was built between 1833 and 1838 and consists of three autonomous parts: the upper, the middle and the lower fortress. First, the lower part and then the upper part has been renovated. In 2014/15 the building body C with the Infopoint BBT has been converted and expanded. This had been severely destroyed in the 1970s by the transfer of the state road.

The basic idea behind the revitalization of the existing structures was the preservation of the unaffected state and the use of the fortress by minimal interventions. Patina and aura of the fortress were to remain in accordance with the new interventions for the development and use. Few carefully selected elements create new connecting paths in the plant and thus make it possible to use as an exhibition space. The materials are selected in accordance with the local conditions of the fortress. The chromaticity and the materiality create “abstract” references to the existing architecture, but nevertheless allow a clear readability of the new interventions. The basic principle of the restoration “Old is old – new is new” is extended in the sense of a dialogue between historical stock and contemporary architecture. The focus was on the preservation of the buildings and the preservation of the fortress squares.

The area along the road is separated from the road by an expanded metal grid, which is set back about 50 cm from the outside edge of the rock.

The outline of the building 10 is traced in its ground plan and is executed as covering the tunnel hole. The new construction of this volume, arranged above the street and with a strong connection with the existing context, can be regarded as an “increase” due to its architectural and static challenges. It thus makes it possible to access the destroyed area. Through this intervention it becomes possible again to open up all historical fortress remains.

The new hall is set up as a “box” (room in space principle) in the reconstructed building envelope of the building 10 and executed in two-layered black insulating clay with interposed thermal insulation.

Laterally there will be a passage which ensures the rainproof connection between the various buildings, even in case of an event. The arrivals from the lower level (new main entrance) as well as the elevator and a small open foyer area are also located in the rain-protected area of ​​this roof slab.

The new visible materials are few and simple materials that blend harmoniously into the historical context.

Design has become and will be more and more the keyword of our world and our next worlds. The word will be the carrier of the thinking processes towards new societies. It is about the phase before production. It is about the thinking before the making. Design products change our world and so do the machines that produce new products. A society led by design is under endless construction and in an expanding smartening universe, there is an emergence of a new world of digitized making.

How to convey that thought? How to experience that? That small thing are able to change the world….. and that big things can change small ones sequentially. What changes can we imagine? How do they interrelate?

MVRDV’s design for the main exhibition hall of the Sea World Culture and Art Center located in Shekou, Shenzhen responds to the biennial theme; ‘Minding the Digital’ and considers the myriad forms of digital creativities that are critical to China’s shift from a historic manufacturing centre to its current reinvention as an innovative hub. The design draws on and also reflects upon the central question of how to identify multiple design directions generated by digital thinking? To answer this, MVRDV has developed a labyrinth located over two floors that individualise and differentiates the display environments for designs and designers, whilst at the same time creates a synergy between both floors which gives different perspectives and experience from either within the exhibition hall or viewing from above.

On level one, a labyrinth of ideas is made. This floor is designed as a maze of rooms that each show of designers and designers are contributing the making of a new world. They all have individualised foucs so need individual rooms to reflect on this. Visitors however can go from room to room to get further acquainted with their works and understand them. All of the rooms have black interiors to give central focus products on display.

On the second floor and above the individualized display spaces below, stairs lead to an upper level with a glass floor showing off the makers, products and designers below. It becomes akin to a ‘dance floor’ where visitors can experience walking over (hi)stories. Here the visitor can interact with what goes on below as well as encountering a space for future products. It is a beautiful space illuminated from below.

The inventions of the past somehow interrelate and this is somehow described as an open source society that promotes showing. and an awareness of what others are doing and thinking. The generator is a place for encountering the interrelatedness of the past and present whilst looking to the future.

Layer after layer new societies are being built and the proposal here for Design Museum might be likened to Schliemann’s excavations in Troy, that showed the evolutions of history and the making of the city. The future is made by inventive ideas that can lead to the emergence of the evolutionary city.

All these rooms, ideas, products and makers might be seen as offering a panoramic view on the current making culture and how design/designers help construct a brave new world.

Before the WWII, Szczecin was a german city and location of our museum used to be a urban quarter. During the war, due to air raids, a quarter was destroyed. After war, Szczecin became a polish city, meanwhile an empty square accidentally appeared in place of a former quarter. In December ’70, there were bloody clashes against the militia with tragic results of 16 fatalities. Since those events, a square has became a symbol of the fight for freedom, which is commemorated by a monument over there. Thus, an idea of a museum of the latest history of Szczecin in that place came up. Philharmonic Hall, designed by Estudio Barozzi Veiga was meant to be built on the opposite side of the street. Even then, we concluded, that this new building would become the new icon of the city, so we decided to step aside to the second plan with our museum design.

A building is bringing together two contradictory traditions – prewar urban quarter and postwar square. That is how an urban hybrid was created – it encloses the space as a quarter, keeping the values of an open public space.

We needed some foreground in front of the philharmonic hall and the church, so that we stayed there on the level of existing square. Former quarter is marked on the opposite corners by smooth uplifts of the square. One of them contains a museum and another one works as a hill, protecting square from the busy street. As a result, an amphitheatric space of the square was created. To receive a monolithic character of the whole design, we attributed one material – concrete – to it, so on the material division of the square floor go in elevation.

Competition site didn’t included whole square, however, we decided to break it to give to the city an added value – a space, which gives brand new opportunities. Outline of the museum came from the competition site. Groundfloor is mainly the entrance zone, underground level became is exhibition space.

Stairway the exhibition space is the border between two worlds, due to blackness of the whole underground level. This idea came up during the realization, when it turned out, that we would not design the exhibition space. We were afraid of some overwhelming scenography, which pretends to be the past, so that we wanted to cut off from it by this move.

However the authors of interior design asked us for consultation and, by then, a collaboration began. As a result, we reject scenography and replace it by art. At the same time historical museum became the museum of art.

Despite of the ban, we pushed trough a smooth flooring, best for riding and doing sports, therefore, while museum is closed, life is still goes on on a square. Topography of the square encourages to skateboarding, skating or sledding. A square has preserved its symbolic character, this is still a place for annual ceremonies. City authorities began to use sloping surface of the square for openair concerts and summer cinema. Szczecin inhabitants understood, this is their square and now they are gathering there to celebrate as well to manifest and express their opinions.

This is a very complex project due to its extensive program and its location in the very historical center of the city of Troyes. The program consists of offices, a state committee plenary hall, a multipurpose room, other smaller committee rooms, and an 800-seat auditorium linked to the congress center area.

The building takes up the space previously occupied by medieval gothic houses that were torn down through changes that have affected the area in recent times, starting with the destruction of an old monastery during the Revolution. In its place the Prefecture building was erected and, most recently, the Council Department building whose extension is the aim of the project.

The trace left by the destruction of the gothic houses between rue Charles Gros and rue Perdu was a huge wound in an otherwise well-preserved urban core. There existed the risk to increase the impact on the city image by carrying out a very compact project, so one of the main decisions was to implement a very fragmented one, restoring the former image of the place, not literally, but through the understanding of the scale of the disappeared constructions and the historical center as a whole.

A thorough urban analysis of the city was therefore arranged in order to have a deeper knowledge of its scale and of some precise references. This way it was possible to verify the solid integration that existed between gothic churches, perceived as great urban monuments, and the residential urban fabric, mainly made up of the abovementioned gothic houses. This fact inspired a possible relation between some of the most monumental elements of the project, such as the auditorium and the office program, and its smaller scaled parts. Other interesting aspects of the city identified in the analysis were the extensive timber structures of the homes and the way these structures were in many cases supported by stone walls. A very important conclusion was the necessity to restore the disappeared urban fabric under scale and fragmentation principles that enabled it to be assimilated into the existing urban settlement. This approach was intended under contemporary architectural values, without literally implementing ‘old’ architecture elements. Very important references were drawn from post-war reconstructions in Germany and Italy and, particularly, from some of their finest architects, among whom were Franco Albini and Rudolf Schwarz. Therefore two basic materials were selected for the new façades: exposed reinforced concrete and wood.

The resulting building structure can be then understood as a ‘narrative’ one, made up of outer and inner episodes.

On the outside the complex resembles a small neighborhood between rue Charles Gros and rue Perdu, around which a small plaza links the existing Council Department building to the new extension. The link between the existing and the new building is achieved through a set of elevated walkways under a monumental baldacchino also serving as a symbolic gate to access rue Perdu and containing stained glass (inspired by the Troyes heritage) designed by the artist Flavie Serrière-Petit. Along the itineraries of rue Perdu and rue Charles Gros the administrative building and the auditorium are articulated. The building also looks onto the outer public spaces, such as Place de la Libèration, to which it presents a more public and monumental appearance that corresponds to the multipurpose room on the inside. Its solid wooden structure is supported by concrete porticoes also presenting a monumental image on the outside, but still not standing out in the residential homes complex, whose height is matched by the new building.

On the inside there is also an itinerary that articulates the main spaces on the ground floor as a sequence: garden-patio between the new building and the adjacent homes, the offices foyer, a transversal street that separates the administrative building and the auditorium, the auditorium foyer and the auditorium itself. Inside the auditorium building there is also a narrative sequence vertically happening in different levels and creating a very dynamic space that is opened to the exterior through the cafeteria bow-windows. The multipurpose room, unlike the rest of the spaces, presents an exposed wooden structure on the inside, linking the space to the outside plaza and making it different from the rest of the building. The rest of the spaces have a different inner character, mainly clad with ‘softer’ materials contrasting with the rougher outer façades.

The state committee plenary hall is located on the top floor of the administrative building and presents a plaster-cladded light structure on the inside, a ‘velarium-like’ covering over the parliamentary forum. On the outside it emerges as a separate volume facing rue Charles Gros. From this hall and from other interior patios of the building the city roofs and some of its main monuments can be sighted.

The Ankara Office Tower is a fourteen-story office building in Ankara, Turkey, that serves local and international high-tech companies engaging with leading universities and research institutes in the nation’s capital.

Urbanistically, the project plays an important role in a rapidly developing area west of Ankara’s old city center, knitting together a transit corridor, a pedestrian underpass, an emerging mixed-use neighborhood, and new commercial areas. In response to this immediate context, the building is set back from the highway, making space for a bamboo grove that buffers a habitable urban garden and provides a much-needed pedestrian connection between the transportation node and the adjacent neighborhood. The tower itself is distinguished by clarity of expression: a simple, geometric glass volume encasing a stack of large scale, horizontal louvers, set in a lush landscape.

At the ground level, the lobby, reception, and a café provide public spaces which scale, enclosure, and use of light reference regional culture. A perforated exterior screen surrounds the café, reflecting traditions for guiding views and creating privacy, and providing a man-made counterpart to the adjacent, semitransparent bamboo “wall.”

The Tower’s innovative cladding system employs horizontal exterior mullions with a variable section, to maximize year-round operational efficiency. Their subtly inflected profiles successively shift as they wrap the Tower, creating a pattern that changes depending on the viewer’s perspective. Interior wood louvers integral to the curtain wall—mechanically operated but with manual overrides—give tenants individual daylight control within their workspace. They mitigate glare, admit indirect light, and maintain views, while introducing wood’s warm, textural qualities to the office environment.

The outcome is a kinetic facade system that is environmentally responsive, satisfies the workplace preferences of a demanding tenant cohort, and enhances the project’s architectural impact and influence in a newly expanding area of the city. Over the course of the day and as one moves around the building, this innovative wall assembly produces a transformative effect, drawing the observer in and evoking curiosity. The exterior sculptural mullions create different patterns, depending on the sun’s position and the pedestrian’s perspective. As wood louvers open or close according to interior needs, the Tower itself appears either permeable or reflective, revealing patterns of use and activity within.

AW Architects is a highly collaborative, multi-disciplinary practice committed to design and construction innovation. For more than twenty years, the firm has been producing acclaimed, innovative projects across a broad spectrum of building types, including complex commissions for private and public institutions, both nationally and overseas.